Caho Yuan

University of Bristol
  • GaN-on-diamond: the correlation between interfacial toughness and thermal resistance

    Daniel Francis, Akash Systems, San Francisco, CA, USA
    Daniel Field, University of Bristol
    Caho Yuan, University of Bristol
    Roland Simon, Thermap Solutions
    Daniel Twitchen, Element Six Technologies
    Firooz Faili, Element Six Technologies, Santa Clara, CA
    Dong Liu, University of Oxford, University of Bristol
    Matin Kuball, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK,

    A nanoindentation induced blistering method has been used to extract the GaN/diamond interfacial toughness (adhesion energy) from four types of GaN-on-diamond samples with varying SiNx interlayer thicknesses. The mode I energy release rate (GIC) was quantified and is presented. Additionally, transient thermoreflectance has been used to measure the thermal boundary resistance (TBR) between the GaN and the diamond substrate. It was found that a thin SiNx interlayer resulted in a lower TBR (15 m2 K GW-1) whilst maintaining a reasonable interfacial toughness (1.4±0.5 J m-2). For interlayers of a similar thickness, samples with a high interfacial toughness and high residual stresses in the GaN had a smaller TBR. This indicates that the intrinsic interfacial characteristics that enhanced the interfacial toughness could be beneficial in improving the TBR.

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